What's so great about being progressive? Aren't progressives the people who want to re-distribute other people's money? And what on earth is so dreadful about the gilded age? The greatest increase in the standards of living in the history of the US happened in the gilded age. By this idiot newyorker writer's logic, we are supposed to dread and avoid the entrepreneurs that dropped the prices of kerosene, steel and other commodities, facilitated rapid industrialization and improved the living standards of everyone. Why are the billionaires of today (sergei, larry, Zuck etc) any different in nature than the billionaires of those times? Except for the crony capitalists that got in bed with the government, what is wrong with great success and wealth?